Checker

I am trying to create a checker program(for a sudoku puzzle) that will read a completed board and then go to determine if it obeys the constraints. If it does, it just says so, if it doesn't it reports the conflict. Where should I start? Thanks.

No problem I am slowly figuring it out. Can you however help me take a text file and store it into a 2d array? I have an incomplete Sudoku puzzle and I want be able to store the filled in numbers and -'s into the 2d array.

What NormR1 is saying that you need to think through each step you take when you try to solve a sodoku. The write down each step in it's simplest terms e.g. "Look at row" -> "does row contain each number 1 - 9?" etc etc

Can you describe what is in the txt file and where its contents would go in the 2D array?
One approach would be to read a line from the file, parse the tokens on the line into separate items/tokens and store each item in the columns of a row in the array. Each line's tokens would be stored in the columns of a row.

I define a 2D array as having rows and columns like this: anArray[theRows][thecolumns]

In the text file is an example of a complete Sudoku puzzle and I need to make sure that the puzzle follows the constraints. I think the best way to do this would be to use the 2d array to compare the rows and columns by varifying if the numbers duplicate.
I will work on your suggestion, by parsing the tokens.